


Mala Santa,

by Gage



Series: Sins of the Father [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Allusions to Bad Parenting, Alternate Universe, Assassins & Hitmen, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Gun Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:07:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24323287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gage/pseuds/Gage
Summary: “It’s not safe here anymore.” Eddie tries so hard to convey how much trouble they're in. Eddie for hesitating on the job and Buck for still being alive. “For either of us…”
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: Sins of the Father [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755961
Comments: 11
Kudos: 75





	1. La llamada

**Author's Note:**

> This story was but a small blurb until Gem asked for an Assassins story and BOOM, it grew. Thanks to Toughpaperround for being my beta on this and for Tarialdarion and Kate, Gem who talked me through smoothing out the edges of most if not all of the contents of this story. 
> 
> Putting warnings here because tags tend to disappear on me. 
> 
> TW:  
> Allusions to Bad Parenting: The way Eddie's parents raised his siblings, nothing graphic.  
> Canon Typical Violence,  
> Gun Violence: The only tag AO3 has, the gun shows up in a few chapters but isn't fired.

* * *

Eddie hears the dial tone in his ear and slowly brings down the burner phone. His heart is pounding in his chest as he carefully places both hands in front of him. The barrel of his gun is pressing harshly against the back of his head. “Evan…” 

“Don’t… you don’t get to call me anything.” Buck's voice cracks but the press of metal is steady. 

Eddie can’t believe he’s let his guard down enough for him to even be in this position. “I can explain.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna.” 

“But not here.” Eddie slowly turns around, facing the man whose trust he spent an entire week gaining. Their strong friendship has turned into something more over the last two months. Eddie can feel his own heart dropping at the devastation on Buck’s face, his eyes shine with tears, lips trembling. How long did he listen in on Eddie’s call to Abuela? 

_“Listen to me, Angelito, take him and run…”_

_“What?”_

_“No le digas a nadie dónde vas,”_

“It’s not safe here anymore.” Eddie tries so hard to convey how much trouble they're in. Eddie for hesitating on the job and Buck for still being alive. “For either of us…” 

There’s a split moment where he is so sure Buck won’t hear what he’s trying to say but then the gun is being lowered and Buck nods his head. “Let’s go.” 

~*~ 

They’re on the road in his car, heading out of LA. Buck hasn’t said one word since they left the hotel. The only noise in the truck is the static news, coming from the radio. It's no surprise to him when he hears about the small explosion at their previous motel. He knows it was his Abuela covering his tracks. He thanks God that she is on his side. Eddie doesn’t know how the rest of his family would take the news. It made his stomach feel like a grenade went off. He reaches over to switch the radio to some old R&B station, setting the music on low. Eddie’s mind was going a mile a minute trying to figure how this all went wrong. This was supposed to be his last job, an easy one at that. All he had to do was put a rune bullet into one Evan Buckley and come home. Put this life behind him and create a new one with his son. It was a pipe dream now.

Christopher. 

Eddie slams a hand against the steering wheel, anger burning him up from the inside. 

“You gonna kill the truck too?” Buck was being sarcastic but Eddie’s eyes narrow down on him all the same. 

“We’ve got to make a stop.” 

~*~ 

It’s near dark when they’re able to pull into the next safe house, just outside of LA. It’s a nondescript one-story house. Eddie’s Abuela never leads him wrong. He watches carefully as Buck locks himself in the bathroom first. After making sure that the place is secure as can be, he pulls out another phone and brings up the last number he ever wants to use. It rings a few times before it’s picked up on the other end. 

“What the hell did you do?” 

“Nice to hear your voice too,” He wasn’t exactly expecting a warm greeting from her after all this time. “I need you to listen to me, and listen good, you need to bring Christopher to me.” 

“Are you out of your mind?.” 

“Emilia… I messed up, and when my parents find out they’re gonna do everything in their power to take him from Tia Pepa and Abuelita.” He glances over his shoulder. Buck now stands by the open door, and for the first time in twenty-four hours, there’s a real concern all over his beautiful face. “I can’t let that happen to him.” Eddie loves his parents, he does, but the way he and his sisters have been raised was wrong. Looking back he can see that now, that ache in his chest was back. The pieces of a larger puzzle slid into place, showing him a dangerous picture. 

There’s a resigned sigh that comes through the phone. “I got you, hermanito... and don't ever call me that again.” 

He laughs as relief hits him instantly, he thanks her before hanging up. Some of the weight he’d been feeling lifts off his shoulders. It doesn’t dull the ache in his heart when he realizes he still has to explain to Buck what brought them here. “Hungry?” 

Buck shakes his head, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “You owe me an explanation, Diaz…” 

Ouch. 

Yeah, he does. 

~*~ 

Later in the kitchen, over some coffee, Eddie lays it all out for him… 

Edmundo Diaz comes from a long line of Assassins for hire. Each one of his family was born with a special skill. They had an uneven childhood filled with training and blending into society. Eddie had been taking jobs since he was fifteen, right up until he chose to enlist for the army at twenty-one. When he came home, his taste for the family's work was gone. He wanted a different life, especially for his son, whose mother had abandoned him while Eddie was overseas. Three years of assignments later, and he wanted out. Eddie could see the toll it was taking on Christopher, he’d be damned if he let his parents turn his sweet little boy into whatever the hell they’d done to his sisters while he was gone. 

“That’s messed up, Eddie.” Buck stirs more sugar into his cup, his hands a little more steady than before. “Where, exactly, do I fit into this?”

Eddie takes a deep breath before he explains how his father gave him a choice, one last job, and then he was free to go. He really should have known better, something about how eager his father was to get him out of El Paso had bugged him something fierce. He didn’t know why until he got to L.A. and opened the intel Mia sent him. 

“Who?” 

"My Sister..." 

Emilia Lopez, the only one in his family who didn’t seem insane after Eddie came back. He was about six when his father came home with a baby girl, announcing she was family. He didn’t find out till he was much older, that she was his half-sister, taken from a rival Ops team. 

“Jesus, EDDIE.” 

He shrugs his shoulders, Eddie’s used to the weirdness that was his family. He reaches over and brings up the files on his tablet, it was the bare minimum on Evan Buckley. On the surface, there was nothing special about him, at least not on paper.

“I don’t get it, why me?” 

Eddie taps on the second file, the one that was redacted to hell. Mia had to work her magic to get the original file including pictures of… 

“That’s my mark, what the hell!” Buck sits back, eyes wide in horror, his entire face flushes red. Eddie knows exactly where that mark is, and what it feels like under his hands, and mouth. 

* * *

**TA: Oliver Evan Buckley-Barnes (Blood moon) Spring 1991.**

**Parents: James Buckley-Barnes Stephania Buckley-Barnes Status: deceased 2015.**

**Sibling: Maddison Buckley Status: Unknown.**

* * *

“My Mother.” For the first time in a long time, Eddie feels openly ashamed of what his family does. “She makes a dossier on a target, my Father… assigns one of us, then the files are burnt.” For a while, there’s nothing but the sound of his heart pounding away in his chest. 

“That's all I was to you?” The fear and heartbreak that fills Buck’s voice make the ache in his chest spike. “An Assignment?” 

“No.” That’s the cold hard truth, Buck has been anything but an assignment to Eddie. He was much more than just a guy whose life he’s saved, more than just a friend. They’d built something neither of them saw coming when he’d made the discovery that the other man wore his mark. “Evan… you were never just an assignment to me.” 

~*~ 

Eddie is nursing his third cup of coffee when his phone buzzes on the table. Buck is sleeping in the next room, and Eddie wants to give him space. He picks up the phone, and the first thing he hears is the sound of an engine, frowns because that means Mia is on the road. 

“Don’t talk, just listen…” 

She sounds out of breath and that scares him more than anything. “You need to leave that safe house now. Don’t take anything from there, just leave now.”

Eddie scrambles out of the seat and into the room Buck was sleeping in and shakes him awake, pressing a finger to his lips when he opens his mouth to complain. 

“Edmundo…” 

  
  


He’s still on the phone with his sister as he shoves clothes into Buck’s arms. 

“You’re dad’s been killing _his_ kind…. He’s been doing it to control you, and your si- ” 

Eddie freezes in place, and that might have cost him his life if Buck hadn’t chosen that moment to yank him down when the windows explode. 

  
  


“EDDIE!” 

~*~


	2. PathWays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to toughpaperround for being my beta on this and making it all shiney. To Jen for encouraging me to keep writing. Gem and the awesome peeps on Buddie discord who supplied me with tips on the fighting scenes. 
> 
> Putting warnings here because tags tend to disappear on me.
> 
> TW:  
> Allusions to Bad Parenting: The way Eddie's parents raised his siblings, nothing graphic.  
> Canon Typical Violence, Drugging of a minor, Gun Violence: The only tag AO3 has, the gun shows up in a few chapters but isn't fired

* * *

Entering Los Angeles California undetected is as easy as when Mia infiltrated the national security database at age ten. Which is to say that it is nothing more than child's play. Unfortunately for her it was just as easy for her older sister to do the same. It’s late in the evening when she reaches Abuela Isa’s house. The lights were still on inside which shouldn’t have tipped her off, but it did. Her instincts for trouble never steer her wrong. She doesn’t have to wait long though, because the woman that comes out of the house carrying her nephew is not her Abuela, it’s her oldest sister.

There’s no hesitation when she gets out of her truck and makes her way up the stone path, effectively blocking Adrianna’s way. Mia swallows down hard around the sudden rocks in her throat. She knew that Papi would be sending someone to claim Christopher, but she’d hoped it would be some stranger, not her big sister. She straightens up at the sight of her nephew limp in Adrianna’s arms, it’s not the natural sleep of a seven-year-old. There’s a burning rage that flashes through her at the knowledge that Adrianna would drug him, it means that Christopher didn’t even know what was happening.

Mia’s eyes narrow down at the two of them, assessing, calculating. Her goal tonight is to get her nephew out of danger, and if it means taking down her older sister then that is exactly what she’s going to do. She doesn’t think before she is moving forward, knowing that reasoning with a trained Diaz is not an option. Not even one who raised her, fed her, clothed her and patched her up. The dark look that takes over Adrianna’s eyes tells her that this is no longer her big sister. 

~*~

Eddie has been in all sorts of combat situations before, so he is ready to fight through the ringing in his ears, to take down the man who climbs through the blown-out windows. But before he can push himself up off the floor Buck’s long legs are in front of him. Eddie watches through blurry vision as Buck grabs their attacker and flips him over onto the floorboards, delivering several blows to different parts of his body before the man stops moving.

There’s something sticky and wet sliding down his face as Eddie takes in the damage around them. The room smells of smoke, but he doesn’t see any flames. Buck is hauling him up onto his feet and moving towards the front of the house, so it’s a blur of motion from one place to another, making his stomach roll. Eddie’s body feels heavy, and he is sliding way too far to his right, stumbling over his own feet. There’s a sharp burn in his side as he slams right into the wall in the hallway. It’s enough to make him cry out, there are spots blooming in his sight before he blacks out.

Eddie finds himself laid across the back seat of a truck. Buck’s beautiful face is hovering above him, but he can’t make out what he’s saying. Cool hands cup his face, tilting him up.

“EDDIE…. ey… STAY WITH ME.” 

Eddie is in and out of consciousness for longer than he knows but he remembers the way the lights slide in and out of the car as they move. “Chris…” Eddie can’t leave him behind, not with his parents out there. He has to get to his son. Eddie has enough strength to push himself up, only to let out a scream when the burn in his side feels like flames.

“Eddie… Jesus sta... hell down…” Buck shouts from somewhere over the front seat. It’s the last thing he hears before he blacks out again.

~*~

Mia reaches out to grab a hold of Adrianna’s wrist and skims over her before her sister moves back, trying to shift her hold on their nephew. Mia was never great with hand-to-hand combat, but she knew enough to move with her. She throws a punch with her free hand, dropping both her hands to block the kick that her older sister threw at her, forcing Mia backwards by a few inches. Adrianna has a few seconds to regain her balance, which is all Mia needs to lunge forward, jamming her fingers into Adrianna’s side, causing her sister to cry out and flinch hard enough to lose her grip on Christopher altogether. Their nephew, unable to cling, fell with a dull thud to the floor. Before she could grab him up, Mia is flung to the side, body in the air for a few seconds before she hits the ground and rolls back up onto her feet. Using the heels of her boots, she digs into the ground and rushes at her older sister, who is bending over to grab up Christopher. Mia jams her shoulder right into Adrianna’s gut, nails rake down her side as the two of them go flying across the lawn, crashing through the fence with loud cries of rage. Mia takes a hit to the head and is left with double vision. A grip to her neck puts everything in focus for a moment. All she can see is her big sister, eyes dark and angry, hovering above her.

~*~

_“Eddie...”_

_“Buck…”_

_Eddie smiles at him, brows raised in disbelief at the man standing across from him. The man who pulled him out of the road and prevented him from being hit by the car that ran a red light._

_“It’s a nickname…”_

_“It suits you.” Eddie bites his lip as he takes in the flush of red on Buck’s cheeks, enjoys the way those lashes flutter down. There’s something of a crawling feeling down his side. He looks down and… there’s blood staining his shirt._

_“Eddie… don’t.”_

_He lifts his shirt and there’s a large bruise on his ribs, blood seeping from a wound he can’t see. Eddie is quick to look back up at Buck whose eyes fill with such sadness._

_“Baby, you weren’t supposed to see that.” Buck’s voice is rough now, kind of low and full of regret as it cracks._

_“What the hell…”_

_Eddie cries out as Buck slams a hand on his side, right over the bruise. “WAKE UP.”_

Eddie’s mouth drops open as he tries to take in as much air as possible, swinging out at the hands trying to hold him down. The lights overhead are too bright, they’re burning his eyes. There’s a moment where everything around him seems to slow down, his heartbeat is the only thing he can clearly hear. It’s mere seconds before the world comes back into focus and the lights explode in a shower of sparks.

“CHRIST! I thought Buckley said he wasn’t armed!” A voice calls from across the room, annoyance clear in his voice.

“He’s not.” The woman to his right is hovering, hand still pressing on his side. “You need to stay still or you’re gonna open those stitches up, and I did not spend the last hour putting you back together for you to tear yourself open again.”

The room isn’t that brightly lit anymore, Eddie falls back on the bed laughing, chest rising and falling rapidly. Something cool slithers into his side, and he looks down to where the woman is pressing down on his bandages. His eyes narrow as he sees lights coming from her hands. 

“It’s gonna be okay, just sleep.”

Eddie struggles to keep his eyes open but they’re too heavy.

~*~

“Out of practice, hermanita,” Adrianna breathes out, a smirk on her face. “Todavía tan lenta y dejando tu lado abierto.”

Mia’s eyes are slow to track but she can see how Adrianna now has the upper hand. Her own hand is twitching to reach for the weapon she has on her belt.

“Looking for this?” Adrianna holds out a small drive, “Neat little trick you’ve got, to be able to do what you can do…” 

Mia’s heart is beating wildly in her chest, that drive is all she has left. Her eyes well up and her mind races with how to get out of this.

“You were always Papi’s favorite, did you know that?” Adrianna’s grip tightens and Mia reaches up weakly to bat at her arm. “The only kid he was ever proud of.” There’s a manic tint to her smile. “Aside from his only son, but I’ll take care of him too.” Mia’s free hand dangles by her boots and she struggles to reach the small weapon she’d stashed there. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that Christopher gets home _real_ safe…” 

Something in the bush’s cracks and that one split second is all it takes for Mia to take her second swing, jabbing the knife into Adrianna’s side. There’s a blur of movements and Mia is falling into the dirt. It takes several breaths for her to realize that the two of them weren’t alone. He was the last person she thought would show up.

“Marcus?” Mia’s voice cracks as the tall young man steps out from behind her sister's crumpled body. 

“Thought you could use a little help.” He shrugs, looking around the grounds as if someone else was going to pop out and attack them. Mia doesn’t think that was going to happen, Adrianna always preferred to do things on her own. 

Mia scrambles to her feet, a little dizzy and breathless, but determined to get to Christopher. Marcus grabs her by the arm helping her stumble over to her unconscious nephew. She sits by his side, reaching out to check his pulse which feels sluggish. She doesn’t like the way he’s breathing either. Mia looks up at her long-time friend with pleading eyes. 

“Little man needs a hospital.” 

It was the truth, but she also didn’t trust a place with so many exits, where Adrianna could track them down. Working quickly to secure Adrianna to the porch post, Mia no longer thinks staying here is an option. It was supposed to be a simple pickup but as always, her family made things worse. 

“Mia… we can’t stay here…”

~*~

“He can’t stay here…”

Eddie feels like his limbs are made of lead, and as heavy as his eyes feel he does have enough strength to open them. From what he can parse out the room is different; this one resembles more an average bedroom. It’s still dark out so he has no idea how much time he’s lost. The loud voices are coming from the open doorway.

“He’s not even fully healed yet, where do you expect us to go?”

“Buckley, I helped you as much as I could, but you brought his _‘kind’_ into my home knowing full well he could be tracked. He can’t stay here.”

“Wait… please.” Eddie hears the tremble in Buck’s voice, and he hates that he’s responsible for the mess they’re in now.

“I’m sorry, I really am. But after what happened with Maddie-”

There is disbelief and anger in Buck’s voice. “That was different, Doug was…”

“Buck… he can’t stay. I can give you supplies and transport…”

The two seem to be walking away from the door and further away. Eddie is fighting the swimming feeling in his head, struggling to keep his eyes open but they slip shut.

~*~

The hospital is fairly busy for a Saturday night, so it’s easy to slip in with Christopher. Marcus leads them down a hall to an empty room. The pretty nurse he comes back with doesn’t ask questions, just goes about seeing to Christopher's arm. The night drags as she comes back with an x-ray, showing that the kid has a fracture just above his wrist bone that needs to be set. This brave kid who tried to help her when his own flesh and blood tried to steal him away.

“Mia…” She turns to see her Abuela Isabel limping down the hall with a duffle bag. Her heart drops at the sight of the bruise that stains her face, and the dried blood on her chin. Mia doesn’t hesitate to run towards her, heart pumping away in fear and slight relief. Abuela’s warm embrace is short but firm; it settles something deep inside her bones. That her Abuela survives to see another day.

She walks the two of them back to Christopher’s room.

“This will be enough for now.”

“What?” Mia looks down at the duffel bag and back up at Abuela, who despite the tears in her eyes, and her injuries, stands tall and serious. “Para qués esto?”

“Listen to me mijita, your Papa won’t stop until he gets his hands on his grandson. No matter what.”

“'Buela what…”

“No, fijate lo que paso… he sent Adrianna first to get Christopher. What do you think is gonna happen when she returns empty-handed?"

Mia feels like her stomach is going to rebel any minute at the implication. It was one thing to know what their father had been doing, but to have it confirmed was a whole other story. She nods, wiping away the tears that fall. It shouldn’t hurt this much to find out that they were now on their father’s list.

“You and Marcus take Christopher…”

“'Buela, no… he can’t.”

“Si, he will help the two of you.”

Mia couldn’t drag anyone else into this, not when she didn’t even know the extent of her family’s reach. It was bad enough that Eddie got involved with Buckley in the first place.

“No, me digas que tu tienes miedo,” Isabel scoffs, but her tone is filled with amusement. She reaches out, cupping Mia’s wet cheeks, “You and Edmundo have always been the strongest of my grandchildren. Don’t forget that.”

Mia leans into Abuela's warmth. This feels too much like a goodbye.

“Everything you need for Christopher is in there, don’t stop for anything mija… go!”

~*~

There are echoes of sound around him, the slight shuffling of feet on old floorboards. Eddie sighs at the feeling of a cool hand at the back of his neck, the gentle press of lips against his forehead. “Buck…” His own voice sounds weirdly sluggish.

“We’ve got a ten-minute window, Buckley.”

“I know.” The defeat in Buck’s voice sounds so wrong, it’s making his chest ache with worry.

“Up you go, big guy.”

Eddie opens his eyes real slow, the world tilting around him making his stomach roll. Buck presses against his side, an arm wrapping around his back and hauling him up. There’s a sharp ache in his ribs that has him whimpering, it’s too hot all around him. Buck is leaning down a bit, those beautiful blue eyes fill with concern. “Eddie, I know it hurts but you have to keep quiet.”

Eddie doesn’t know why he’s whispering, but he manages what passes as a nod. Buck leans up and tilts his head to the side. Someone else is on his other side, sliding an arm across his back. Eddie can barely move his own arms up to grab onto Buck and this stranger.

“Dude, you didn’t tell me he was heavy.”

“Not the time, Stiles.”

“Just sayin’.”

~*~

From the door of the room, it’s a blur of motions and time. Eddie doesn’t remember it all, and he’s pretty sure this Stiles guy is doing something to keep him docile. Every time he feels the slightest pain, which shifts into anger at not being able to contain it, there is a calm and cool sensation that seeps into his wound and stretches into the rest of his body.

They’re in a moving car when he wakes up again. He’s laying out in the back seat with his head on Buck’s lap. Buck, whose fingers are stroking his hair, blunt nails gently massaging his scalp. The sun is filtering through tinted windows, and he can see the green on the trees they pass clear as day. That peaceful feeling lasts a few minutes before panic sets in and he tries to sit up. Only to fall back onto Buck’s lap. There’s a frown on his face.

“Easy, you’re still hurt.”

“What… what happened?”

“Too much.”

That’s not exactly an answer that Eddie can just swallow down. “Buck… I can’t…” Eddie has to mentally count to ten before he can speak again. “We need to go back.”

Buck exchanges looks with whoever is driving before he looks down at him. Brow furrowed, eyes so sad. “Eddie we can’t go back.”

He doesn’t understand, they have to go back. They have to. Mia doesn’t know where they’re going or where they’ve been. His only connection to his son. “We have to… Buck please… Christopher.”

There’s that strange look again, the one he can’t quite read, and it makes him so angry. Up until a few days ago Eddie used to be able to read Buck like an open book. Now it’s like he’s been denied access and it makes something in his chest ache something fierce.

“It’s gonna be okay.” Buck continues to stroke his scalp calmly and Eddie doesn’t understand how. His wounds make it so he can’t move much and once again he finds himself falling into an unwanted sleep. The last thing he hears is Buck yelling at the driver. Something about… magic.

~*~


End file.
